A very happy Easter to you all. I hope you were able to spend time with family over the Easter weekend and enjoyed the exquisite weather that we had. This is the last newsletter for Term 1 and really can’t believe we have come to the end of the term already. This afternoon, you will be able to log on to Compass and access your child/ren’s interim report. It has been a productive term with the students well and truly settled into the school year.

With CATALYST being at the core of Teaching and Learning at St Thomas the Apostle, we are proud of the work that Luke Mooney is doing in Archdiocese, interviewing teachers about how they are implementing CATALYST in their schools. He talks to teachers and leaders about many different aspects including Explicit Direct Instruction and Hight Impact Teaching Practices. Would you like to know more about the teacher experience? You can listen to the Teacher Insights Podcast series to learn more. Click on this link to see the episodes Luke has created so far.

Classroom Mastery

Classroom Mastery is another element of CATALSYT, namely, a behaviour curriculum. Our staff along with the staff of Merici College and St Patrick’s Cooma, will be spending the day together next Friday 12 April, learning about how to implement Classroom Mastery in each of our schools. This will be conducted by Dr Tim McDonald, the creator of this particular behaviour curriculum. So, what is a behaviour curriculum? A behaviour curriculum defines the expected behaviours in a school. It outlines the values of the school and the intended behaviour culture of the school. It clearly outlines the way that these behaviours will be taught and maintained throughout the school. A behaviour curriculum describes the routines necessary to support classroom success. It includes more detail about the specific skills or steps making up a broader routine.

This will be a Pupil Free Day with the last day of the school term being Thursday 11 April.  TEAMKIDS will be running a school holiday program on the Friday for those families needing child care. To find out more, register or book via the link below. 

ANZAC Day ceremony

We will be holding an ANZAC Day ceremony after we return from holidays at 2:30 pm on Friday 3 May. This will be held in the ANZAC garden (weather permitting). Parents, carers and families are most welcome to attend.

Enrolments for 2025

Enrolment time will be here again early in Term 2 (2 May – 27 May). If you have a little one ready for school in 2025 or you know of anyone interested in enrolling at St Thomas the Apostle, our open days are on Saturday 4 May from 9am until 11am and Wednesday 15 May from 9:00am-5:00pm. Families who are not able to come at those times as welcome to contact the school to arrange a time to come and visit.

Term 2

We look forward to seeing all our students back on Tuesday 30 April dressed in the winter uniform. A description of what constitutes the uniform can be found on the school website. There will be a grace period of two weeks to transition to this uniform as there can still be warm days early in the term.

School Community Council (SCC)

At our meeting last week Mrs Angela Schact stood down from the role after 2 years at the helm but will stay on the SCC and be responsible for seeing through the implementation of the Parent Engagement Grant.  Mr Dan McInerney is the incoming chair and Mrs Amie Lloyd is the new vice chair. Early in Term 2 there will be an open meeting of the SCC where parents will have an opportunity to be involved in one or more aspects of the school life. There will be more information coming out about this in a separate announcement next week.  

New toilets 

While almost all areas of the school and buildings have been upgraded over the past 15 years, the final big building project is the replacement of the outside toilet block …. and that is about to happen! Over the holidays, the current toilet block will be gutted and new cubicles, pedestals, cisterns, and sinks will be installed. The narrow entry doors will be replaced with large sliding gates. It will be a welcome improvement for the school. This should be completed early in Term 2.  I will post photos as the project progresses.

Harmony Day combined with Grandparent’s Day

Don’t forget these very special events will be celebrated on the last day of term, next Thursday 11 April.  Children can dress in the national dress of their family’s country of origin or colours that represent those countries. Alternatively, children can wear orange for Harmony Day. There will be Mass, a shared morning tea, a visit to classrooms and a Year 2 assembly.  It will be fantastic day and a great way to finish off the term.

Finally a very big thank you must go to Paco Iglesias who has given up his early mornings to train a small number of students for cross country over the past three weeks. These students have definitely finessed their skills in running long distances!

Yours in partnership,

Ursula Jamieson
Principal

Happy Birthday
to the following students
who will celebrate a birthday in April